Posted by Jon on 29 October, 2009 under Musings | 
A friend recently pointed me to a wonderful website called “F My Life”. Perfect for those of you who enjoy an occasional taste of schadenfreude, its numerous posts describe readers’ more surprisingly depressing moments
Some are a little risqué, but the site’s perfectly safe to read at work. Here are a couple of examples to give you a flavour:
“Today, I texted my college boyfriend to tell him how terrible I felt about cheating. He replied saying he was so relieved because he had been cheating on me with a girl in his dorm. I was talking about my math exam. FML”
“Today, I brought my little sons into work with me. I introduced them to my boss. She said to my shy kids, “You boys don’t know me, do you? I’m Janice.” The older one lit up and said, “Oh, I know you, mommy complains about you all the time.” FML”
“Today, I realized how invisible/forgettable I am. At work, I went to ask my supervisor what I was working on today. My supervisor admitted that he forgot I was working today. My supervisor is my brother. We drove to work together this morning. FML”
“Today, there was a meeting at work. I had to give a presentation to my boss and the other attendants. My first subject was on how my 5 year old son got to my briefcase and replaced the contents of it with crayons and a stuffed teddy bear. FML”
I wondered what the proposal equivalents might be. Here are a few ideas:
“I had the team working all over the holiday period so we could get the document in by the January 2 deadline. I just noticed that the submission date’s actually January 22. FML.”
“Today, we did a final review of our 1000 page proposal. One of the reviewers noticed that the RFP required responses in Ukrainian. Our document’s in English. It’s due in tomorrow. FML.”
“Today, I bumped into one of our account managers in the staff restaurant and told them that we were making great progress on the proposal for their client that’s due next week. They looked surprised, and asked whether I’d had the email two weeks ago stating that the customer concerned has cancelled the project. FML.”
Posted by BJ on 27 October, 2009 under Word play & writing |
I received a mail from someone recently thanking me for my having reviewed and offered comment on his APMP Practitioner Accreditation Questionnaire.
This individual said that my comments and suggested changes had been very helpful and that when incorporated, had resulted in a much stronger questionnaire.
The person finished by thanking me for, “…imbibing confidence in me.”
Though I hadn’t suggested that the questionnaire needed so much work this individual should consider turning to the bottle, I guess that’s one way to get confidence. ☺
According to www.dictionary.com:
im-bibe (verb, bibed, -bibing)
1. to consume liquids by drinking, to drink. He imbibed great quantities of alcohol.
2. to absorb or soak up, as water, light or heat. Plants imbibe moisture from the soil.
3. to make or receive into the mind, as knowledge. She imbibed the beautiful scenery.
Posted by Jon on 23 October, 2009 under Interviews and the Panel |
Next up in our occasional series of discussions with some of the leading lights of the proposal profession: Kris Sæther, Sales Director of software company Xait.
Please could you describe your current role?
As Sales Director for Xait, I am responsible for XaitPorter for new and existing clients, in addition to partners/resellers. All sales people at Xait are also responsible for training and follow-up of their clients.
This means that we need to deliver what we promise when presenting XaitPorter to prospects.
How can proposal centres go about making their proposal processes more efficient?
I believe that most people would agree that there are several things that can make their proposal processes more efficient. Biased as I am, I would look at the tools you have at hand. Do you have the correct kit in your toolbox to deliver as required?
In addition, surprisingly many contributors to a proposal merely want to get their bit done and are not concerned about making it easy for the prospects to understand. Giving the proposal participants a better understanding of what is expected of them and more guidance, could go a long way.
How do you respond to those who claim that, “It’s all about price”?
I would say that while there can be some truth in the statement, normally prospects look at the value of your proposal compared to price. If you can’t convince your client that you give them more value for money than the competitor, maybe you should start looking closer at your proposals? Are they compliant AND responsive?
What’s the worst (or funniest) proofreading error you’ve ever seen in a proposal?
This was in a previous job when the law firm White and Case was replaced (mistakenly) with Whore and Case. The lawyer whom received the proposal luckily took this fine and replied; “A lot can be said about lawyers, most of which is true, however I would prefer if you referred to us in the future as White & Case”. By the way, we won the contract.
If you had to recommend one book to proposal managers, what would it be? (It doesn’t have to be specifically about proposals!)
I would recommend the article “A Bidder’s dozen – Golden Rules for Winning Work” by David G. Pugh, published by APMP in 2002. Excellent article.
Thanks for your time, Kris!
Posted by BJ on 21 October, 2009 under Musings |
A childhood friend of mine, Steve and I were reminiscing about TV shows we watched growing up (yes Jon, we did have TV’s back then, albeit there were only 3 channels and these were only broadcast only from 6am to midnight ☺).
One such show was Sandy Becker, a children’s show which was shown in the greater New York City area (I’m guessing those you who are around my age and grew up in the New York area may also fondly recall the show.) This show featured several characters, all played by the very talented Sandy Becker. One such character, a favorite of mine, was the Big Professor.
The Big Professor would select and answer questions submitted by children, (and I suspect a few parents). The person whose question was chosen to be answered on the air would receive a prize.
As it happens, a cousin of mine submitted a question that was selected and answered by the Big Professor. Her question was, “What makes popcorn pop?”
Steve commented that the Big Professor was our version of Google. This got me to thinking and I decided to Google this question and see what would come up.
As you might suspect, I got a few hits (1,220,000 actually) and had all sorts of information literally at my fingertips. (I also got 780,000 for Sandy Becker and for Big Professor videos.)
As one who grew up in the middle of the industrial age and is now in the Information age, I continue to be amazed at the both information available to us and the speed at which we are able to access it. A favorite question that I ask when I wish to get a conversation started is, “What will the world be like when our children (grandchildren) are our age?” One can only imagine.
Another question that this raises is, given the changes in availability of information, “What will RFPs/Proposals look like in the future? We’d love to hear your thoughts on this.
Posted by Jon on 19 October, 2009 under Word play & writing |
I was working recently on a project with Graham Ablett (one of our fellow Directors in Strategic Proposals) on a project to edit and sharpen a client’s pre-written proposal content. A few of the lines in the raw material provided to us were particularly bizarre.
- “The core list of products in PRICING represents WHATEVER IT REPRESENTS and is not a comprehensive list of products.” (What???)
- “During contract implementation, you will receive fluid communication from your business development manager.” (I don’t think I want to know any more!)
- If there’s a problem with deliveries, they’ll advise the relevant warehouse who will make certain “that the correct quantity of product is stored to ensure further disruption”. (Ensure??!!).
Still, I’m not immune from the occasional howler myself: when we printed off a batch of our work for review, I’d mentioned the client’s ‘manufucaturing’ site. That almost feels like an example of BJ’s newordology, for those moments when things go wrong in the factory…
Posted by Proposal Panda on 15 October, 2009 under Proposal Panda |
My mission to South Africa was to be a Proposal Pioneer at the first ever AGM of the local APMP chapter. I even have a certificate to prove it. For those of you who don’t understand cryptic TLA’s, too bad – refer to the table of abbreviations on page 999 of the proposal I forgot to attach. So here I am with all the other pioneers – that’s me next to the flag in the front row. I’m glad I arrived by plane and car rather than by ox-wagon. Nor did I have to eat any of that vile beef jerky they call biltong. Bamboo shoots are hard to come by in Africa, but the locals were friendly and that tree in the background tasted good.
Sporting my new cap, I took some time off to go on safari to the local zoo. This elephant tickled my ear – how rude! Unfortunately my hectic globe-trotting schedule didn’t allow for a trip to the Kruger Park game reserve to see the rest of the animals known as the Big 5. And I’ll have to save Cape Town for next time. They say Table Mountain and the wine-lands are amazing. And the garden route sounds worth exploring. I fancy a pony trek in the Drakensberg and a beach holiday on the wild coast to unleash the wild panda within. I’ll be back for their first APMP conference!
Refreshed after my safari, I took the time to inspire Wendy Word, a local proposal witch. In my absence, she will continue the work I started. I shared with her some secrets on how to motivate bid teams in the dead of night and discouraged her from making potions for them to drink. Instead I showed her how to make a mean cup of coffee and explained what Red Bull does.
Wendy Word in turn told me about the NOSE she uses for persuasive proposals, and the 10 tips she trains nFold customers to use. I thought she meant her own pointy nose, but was too polite to ask. I’d forgotten all about Need Outcome Solution and Evidence to make my proposals more client-focused and differentiated. It never hurts to re-visit the basics, so I decided to brush up on Tom Sant’s persuasive methodology by reading his classic and his latest books. I liked his concept of avoiding the pseudo-languages: fluff, guff, geek and weasel, in “The Language of Success” and found it an easy read. Even my emails have improved.
As a famous bear, I’m quite used to the Paparazzi by now. But even I was stunned by how eager the local journalists are to meet me. Here I am motivating for a radio interview by phone. I have a few meetings planned with the local business community before I leave. And I’ve managed to round up a few more subscribers to my blog. Wendy Word has started a blog of her own. I guess we’ll compare notes from time to time. It’s great to have a new friend in proposals, even if she is a witch. And I guess that’s why the South Africans started the local chapter of APMP. There’s nothing like moral support to cheer one up. It’s nice to know you’re not the only bear trying to meet a proposal deadline – doing the impossible, with the unwilling, for the ungrateful.
Proposal Panda travels the world visiting proposal professionals. Click here for more details. If you’d like Panda to visit you, just email us at panda@theproposalguys.com
Posted by Jon on 13 October, 2009 under Processes & best practice |
I wrote recently about Mike Parkinson’s excellent book, “Business Dollar Business Graphics”. Another title that’s become an absolute favourite of mine in recent months is the wonderful “Presentation Zen” by Garr Reynolds, which I picked up in the bookstore at this year’s APMP conference and have dipped back into regularly ever since. Garr has a blog, too – it’s well worth clicking to have a look.
It’s really made me stop and think about our own presentations and those we help our clients to put together. We make no claim to be graphic designers, but we do get pretty actively involved in the process of developing, planning and rehearsing proposal presentations. Most of the PowerPoint packs I see (and, hey, why do presenters always default to a slide presentation?) are based on fairly similar design principles, with a corporate logo floating around somewhere on each page of a standard template comprising three common components:
- an area for the heading
- space in the middle for the main graphic (at least no one’s using clip art these days!) and text (often the dreaded bullet-point list)
- a footer, often with the page number, copyright statement and similar.
This book’s ethos is all about simplicity. It’s full of examples of high-impact designs that break free from these conventional ‘wisdoms’ and make it far easier for the reader to absorb information – with bold, striking, full-screen graphics and far, far fewer words.
As Garr writes in the book, “We’ve learned some ineffective habits over the years. The first step to change is letting go of the past.” It strikes me that we’re at a tipping point with presentation design, and this is the first book I’ve seen that really captures what I think great presentations are going to look like in the coming decade.
